{"id":924875,"date":"2026-10-12T01:50:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T01:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/924875\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T01:50:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T01:50:20","slug":"nrl-news-2026-bronson-xerri-comments-on-canterbury-bulldogs-exit-cameron-ciraldo-feud-melbourne-storm-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/924875\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: Bronson Xerri comments on Canterbury Bulldogs exit, Cameron Ciraldo feud, Melbourne Storm signing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bronson Xerri<\/a> has lifted the lid on his early exit from Canterbury<\/a>, while setting the record straight on his reported dispute with coach Cameron Ciraldo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After returning to the NRL at the conclusion of a four-year drug ban<\/a> in 2024, the speedster had become a mainstay at left centre for the Bulldogs. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bronson Xerri.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

However, things started to fall apart for Xerri early in the 2026 campaign, which saw him dropped to reserve grade and replaced by Enari Tuala<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old played in the club\u2019s Las Vegas season opener against the Dragons, but was left out for round two in a selection bombshell from Ciraldo.<\/p>\n

Reports then began to emerge that Xerri was unhappy with being moved from the left side to the right and had asked for an early release from Belmore.<\/p>\n

He was eventually granted a release months later to join the Melbourne Storm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking at length about the saga on the Unscripted With Josh Mansour podcast, Xerri explained his version of events and why he was \u201cburning\u201d about some of the speculation and leaks that became public, while also revealing an osteitis pubis injury he dealt with in pre-season was a major reason for his rough start.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Ciro had so many one-on-one meetings, tough conversations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was telling him how I was feeling, he was giving me some brutal feedback, which is obviously what coaches are supposed to do. I took it pretty bad, because I\u2019ve never been in that kind of situation and I\u2019ve never been dropped.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was brutally honest with him and told him I\u2019m trying my best out there, it\u2019s just not coming together. I even said to him \u2018maybe put me on the left and see if there\u2019s a difference\u2019 and he was adamant that he wanted Critta (Stephen Crichton) on the left.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I was lucky to even play in Vegas. It got to the point where a week later, he dropped me. I was prepared for it, but it still hurt. You don\u2019t wanna kick stones, you don\u2019t wanna bring bad energy to the boys, but it\u2019s hard. You\u2019re walking out of Ciro\u2019s office and everyone can see that something has gone down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat day [reports came out] and it didn\u2019t help me at all, it was coming out saying I was whinging and kicking stones, but it wasn\u2019t like that at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next day and I came in and spoke to Ciro and asked what\u2019s this that has been leaked out? We were sizing each other up saying \u2018who leaked it\u2019 but we got to the bottom of it, and it wasn\u2019t either of us obviously. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nuts bro, you say something to someone and it gets [spread around] … I was burning seeing people say that. You had all these other boys, who were standing behind you when everything was going good, jumping on and saying I was having a sook and I didn\u2019t deserve this or that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bulldogs great Willie Mason was highly critical of Xerri<\/a> at the time, while former centre Josh Morris also voiced his displeasure<\/a> around the situation.<\/p>\n

\"Bronson<\/p>\n

Bronson Xerri.\u00a0NRL Imagery<\/p>\n

Xerri won his spot back at different stages throughout the year, but was limited to just 16 appearances \u2013 two of which came from the bench \u2013 as Ciraldo continually tinkered with the Bulldogs\u2019 backline in search of results, eventually pushing Matt Burton to centre for captain Crichton, who took the reins at five-eighth.<\/p>\n

The continued juggling of spots by Ciraldo didn\u2019t pay off, as the Dogs missed the finals. They will enter 2027 with more questions than answers.<\/p>\n

On the flip-side, Xerri will get a fresh start at the Storm and many believe the change of scenery, working under Craig Bellamy, could spark the Aquinas Colts product back towards the type of football he is capable of playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the start I was very anxious and nervous, but now I\u2019m just keen to get over there and start. It all came pretty quick, but I\u2019m excited and can\u2019t wait,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bronson Xerri has lifted the lid on his early exit from Canterbury, while setting the record straight on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":924876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-924875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=924875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/924876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}